A Proactive Approach Could Have Prevented the DNC Email Hack

The NSA isn’t the only Washington organization being embarrassed by a data breach. The sorry state of cyber security in America has taken center stage in this year’s presidential election. In June, it was discovered that Russian cyber criminals had managed to hack the Democratic National Committee’s email server, stealing over 20,000 emails and sharing them with WikiLeaks. While most of the emails contain mundane correspondence, some of them are quite embarrassing and imply possible ethical violations on the part of DNC insiders, such as emails questioning Bernie Sanders’ religion and implying the party officers wished to derail his campaign. Shortly after the emails were released, the DNC’s chairperson, CEO, and communications director abruptly resigned. Even worse, the New York Times has revealed that the DNC email hack might be much more extensive than originally believed, involving the email accounts of over 100 individuals and groups.

The DNC email hack bears a strong resemblance to the equally scandalous email hack perpetrated on Sony Pictures two years ago, which was believed to have been carried out by North Korean nation-state hackers. That hack involved the release of 170,000 emails, many of them containing negative commentary about major Hollywood stars. Sony’s chairperson was removed, the company ended up being sued, and the emails are still live on WikiLeaks, neatly indexed and searchable.

While the Sony hack and the DNC email hack involved ethical and privacy violations, the release of corporate emails can damage an organization even if the employees in question did nothing wrong. Confidential information about new product launches, marketing strategies, and partnership negotiations are routinely discussed via email, and this information could destroy a company if it fell into the hands of a competitor.

Proactive Ways to Prevent Email Hacks

Both the Sony hack and the DNC email hack could have been prevented using proactive email security measures. Following are three things your company can do to prevent your emails from ending up on WikiLeaks – or in the hands of a competitor.

Train Your Employees How to Spot Spear Phishing

It is believed that the Sony hack and the DNC email hack happened after hackers used a spear-phishing campaign to get hold of legitimate login credentials. Spear phishing has become extremely popular among hackers as end users have become more aware of these scams and as spam filters have gotten better at recognizing and intercepting regular phishing emails. Because spear-phishing emails are sent to only a small group of targets and are carefully researched and crafted to appear legitimate, they tend to pass through spam filters. Therefore, the best defense is employee awareness. See our previous blog for more information on how to spot spear phishing emails.

Set Up Your System to Assign Employee Passwords

Regardless of how many times they are told not to do so, employees frequently choose passwords that are weak, and they tend to use the same password to access multiple systems, including their personal and work accounts. Thus, a hacker may be able to use an employee’s Dropbox password to get into their work email. For this reason, random, strong passwords should be assigned to employees, and the system should be set up to require periodic password changes.

Outsource Your Enterprise Email

In most cases, using a private email server for company email, as the DNC did, is a bad idea. The majority of companies do not have the in-house technical expertise to securely set up an email server, continuously monitor it for unusual user behavior, or maintain up-to-date spam filters. Large enterprise email providers such as Google and Yahoo do. While using one of these providers is not a guarantee that you will not be breached – especially in light of the popularity of social engineering – a third-party provider will offer a higher level of email security than you could achieve in-house.

The cyber security experts at Lazarus Alliance have deep knowledge of the cyber security field, are continually monitoring the latest information security threats, and are committed to protecting organizations of all sizes from security breaches. We offer full-service risk assessment services and Continuum GRC software to protect companies from data breaches, ransomware attacks, and other cyber threats.

Lazarus Alliance is proactive cyber security®. Call 1-888-896-7580 to discuss your organization’s cyber security needs and find out how we can help secure your organization’s data.

Healthcare is one of the most regulated industries in the U.S. HIPAA, or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, requires healthcare organizations and their third-party service providers, such as labs and billing companies, to have data security measures in place protect patients’ private health information (PHI). HIPAA compliance is complex, and the penalties for non-compliance are stiff; if a facility’s PHI is breached, and it is found they were not compliant with HIPAA, the facility could face millions of dollars worth of fines. In some cases, company executives can even be held criminally liable.

C-level executives in the healthcare industry may not understand the intricacies of ransomware attacks or phishing schemes, but they do understand the seriousness of HIPAA compliance. They also fall into the trap of thinking that if their organization is compliant with HIPAA, that means their systems are safe. As a result, they devote most or all of their cyber security resources to complying with HIPAA.

HIPAA compliance is crucial – but a cyber security plan cannot start and end with HIPAA compliance.

HIPAA Compliance Is Only a Starting Point to Protect Patient Data

Today’s healthcare IT environment is highly complex. In addition to electronic health records (EHRs), mobile technology, cloud applications, electronic health exchanges, and Internet of Things (IoT) devices are growing in popularity. These technologies are making it easier for healthcare providers to deliver quality care and are improving patients’ lives, but each new gadget and application means new vulnerabilities for hackers to exploit.

In a recent survey of information security experts conducted by the Brookings Institution, most respondents indicated that they felt HIPAA does not sufficiently address modern healthcare data security issues, mainly because the law is light on specifics. HIPAA compliance is primarily about demonstrating that an organization has met certain documentation and procedural requirements. It does not outline precise technical safeguards.

The proof that HIPAA compliance is insufficient to protect against ransomware and data breaches is in the statistics. Healthcare is the most likely industry to experience a data breach. Nearly 90% of healthcare organizations – and 60% of third-party healthcare vendors – have experienced at least one breach. Nearly 80% have had two or more, and nearly 50% have had three or more.

Why Isn’t HIPAA Compliance Enough?

There are several reasons why HIPAA compliance does not provide full data protection on its own. First, it isn’t meant to. Technology simply changes too quickly for any legislation to keep up. By the time a new set of rules were written, they’d already be out of date! This is why HIPAA focuses on what organizations need to achieve, not on precisely how they should go about achieving it. Second, every organization’s IT environment is different. A data security plan that works well at one facility may fall flat at another. Finally, compliance rules cannot adequately address the threats posed by mistakes, negligence, or malicious acts on the part of a facility’s employees, which cause nearly half of all data breaches.

HIPAA compliance should be the starting point – not the entirety – of a comprehensive, proactive healthcare data security plan.

Many healthcare organizations do not have the resources to handle all of their information security needs in-house; many others don’t know where to start. This is why they should partner with a professional cyber security firm such as Lazarus Alliance. The cyber security experts at Lazarus Alliance have deep knowledge of the cyber security field, are continually monitoring the latest information security threats, and are committed to protecting organizations of all sizes from security breaches. We offer full-service risk assessment services and Continuum GRC software to protect companies from data breaches, ransomware attacks, and other cyber threats.

Lazarus Alliance is proactive cyber security®. Call 1-888-896-7580 to discuss your organization’s cyber security needs and find out how we can help your organization.

When contracting with a service provider, such as a data center, it is important for companies to ensure that their provider possesses the cyber security-related certifications and compliance standards that are applicable to the company’s industry. Data centers, as well as service providers who contract with data centers, sometimes claim to be “SSAE 16” certified. In an effort to cut through the noise and clear up some of the confusion regarding SSAE 16 compliance, Lazarus Alliance would like to clarify what SSAE 16 compliance is—and isn’t.

What is SSAE 16?

SSAE 16 is an internationally recognized auditing standard for service organizations. It was developed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and replaces the previous standard, SAS 70. SSAE 16 reporting helps service organizations comply with the requirements of Sarbanes Oxley (section 404) to demonstrate effective internal controls covering financial reporting. SSAE 16 applies to data centers that host systems that are involved in their clients’ financial reporting, as well as web hosting providers, ASPs, and ISPs who perform services that are relevant to their clients’ financial reporting.

There are three types of reports that can be issued: an SOC 1, an SOC 2, or an SOC 3, all of which address different controls. Performing an SSAE 16 audit and issuing an SOC report demonstrates a service provider’s commitment to maintaining a sound control environment that protects their clients’ data and confidential information.

Some service providers who use SSAE 16-compliant data centers imply that they are, somehow, SSAE 16 compliant by proxy. This is not the case; just because you use a provider who is SSAE 16 compliant does not mean that your company is SSAE compliant, and to imply such is black-hat marketing.

There is No Such Thing as SSAE 16 “Certification”

A Google search on “SSAE 16” reveals numerous instances of companies claiming to be “SSAE 16 Certified.” Organizations are compliant with SSAE 16; there is no such thing as becoming “SSAE certified.” SSAE 16 has to do with issuing SOC reports; no “certification” is awarded to anyone. Beware of any service provider that claims to possess an SSAE 16 “certification” or purports to be working towards getting one.

Need SSAE 16 Compliance Auditing Services?

If you have questions about SSAE 16, or if your company needs SSAE 16 auditing services, Lazarus Alliance can help! Depending on your team’s availability, our SSAE 16 audit process initially takes just a few weeks from start to completion. We realize that our clients have full-time, everyday obligations in addition to dealing with auditors, so we will be happy to work around your schedule and provide a quality audit and report in the time frame you desire.

Lazarus Alliance’s primary purpose is to help organizations attain, maintain, and demonstrate compliance and information security excellence in all jurisdictions. Lazarus Alliance specializes in IT security, risk, privacy, governance, cyberspace law, and compliance leadership solutions and is fully dedicated to global success in these disciplines. Learn more about Lazarus Alliance and why Lazarus Alliance is Proactive Cyber Security™!